The Northern Territory and Western Australian Governments are making the move to ban plastic bags for good!
WA: Plastic shopping bags would be banned in WA under a plan to be tabled when parliament resumes in Perth in February. Opposition environment spokeswoman Sally Talbot announced she would introduce a private member’s bill to ban plastic shopping bags, of which it is estimated some 400 million are used in the state each year. “Several WA councils and communities including Albany and Fremantle have moved to eliminate plastic bag use and there is wide support for a ban from all round Western Australia” she said. Read more here.
NT: The Territory Government has announced the long-awaited climate change policy which is more than 10 months overdue. The policy is expected to include the phasing out of single-use plastic shopping bags to encourage shoppers to use re-usable bags. “We’ll be introducing legislation in 2010 to ban plastic bags into the Territory” says NT Chief Minister, Paul Henderson. “This is about reducing landfill and certainly complementing what we will be doing in a cash-for-containers scheme in 2011. It’s about everybody playing their part and certainly I’m going to have to change my shopping habits”. Read more here.
